New Delhi/Washington: Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cancelled their meeting with a visiting US congressional delegation to show India’s displeasure over the treatment meted out to Devyani Khobragade, India’s Deputy Consul General in New York.

Meanwhile, sources also said that the Government of India has asked the US government to return all ID cards issued to their consular officers posted in the country.

"Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA," Modi said on twitter.

On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar cancelled her meeting with a US Congressional delegation as a mark of protest against the treatment meted out to India's Deputy Consul General in New York.

Kumar, herself a Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who quit the service before joining politics, cancelled the meeting as she felt it was not "appropriate" to meet the Parliamentarians of the US, which has badly treated one of India's senior diplomats.

Significantly, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, who also had a scheduled meeting with the five-member US team, did not meet them apparently for the same reason.

According to media reports, Khobragade, who was arrested in New York last week, over alleged visa fraud and exploiting her housekeeper and babysitter was not only handcuffed but was later strip-searched in custody and made to stand with common criminals, drug addicts and sex workers by the New York Police.

The 1999-batch IFS officer was arrested on the street while she was dropping her daughter to school. 39-year-old Khobragade was later released on USD 250,000 bond.

India asks US diplomats to return IDs

In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the US to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country, a move which may be a precursor to reviewing immunity and benefits enjoyed by them as a protest to the treatment meted out to India's Deputy Consul General in New York.

"Government has asked the US to return the ID cards given to their consular officers posted in India," government sources said.

It is understood that the government intends to review the immunity and benefits enjoyed by US diplomats.

Significantly, the review comes after India reacted sharply to Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade being arrested and handcuffed in public in New York on visa fraud charges last week by summoning US Ambassador Nancy Powell and issuing a demarche in this regard.

US hides behind ‘standard procedures’ in Indian diplomat’s arrest

As media reports suggested that Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was ‘strip-searched’ after her arrest in New York threatened to escalate a diplomatic row between the two countries, the United States suggested it had merely followed ‘standard procedures’.

While no comment was forthcoming from the Indian side about these reports, attributed to unnamed sources about Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, the US State Department sought to pass the buck to the justice department and the local police.

"The State Department's Diplomatic Security followed standard procedures during the arrest," spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters on Monday, when asked why the US was not respecting basic courtesies to a diplomat as it expected others to respect its own diplomats.

"After her arrest, she was passed on to the US marshals for intake and processing. So for any additional questions on her treatment, obviously, this would be the US Marshals and not us. I would refer you there," she said.

On the question of Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon canceling their meetings with a visiting congressional delegation to show India's displeasure, the State Department spokesperson again sought to pass the buck. "I think I'd probably point you to the congressional delegation to comment on that. I'm happy to look into what happened exactly further. I just don't know the details," she said.